Los Angeles Webography… Wayfarers All

Amongst the many resources available pertaining to Los Angeles are websites, blogs, podcasts, and other online-only resources. I read many of them regularly, some too much, and almost all of them occasionally. For my own use and for the use of others (especially explorers and adventurers) I’ve here compiled what I hope is as conclusive a webography (or “webliography”) of Los Angeles sources. Magazines, books, and other print media will be included in the Los Angeles Bibliography.

Without intending any slights, I’ve almost certainly omitted a few worthy sites and some writers whose work is hard to pin down to a single site. Do please leave suggestions, though, and corrections in the comments and bear with me as this is a work in progress. If you are the creator behind one of these sites and would like me to add a photo, logo, or other information — let me know… and thank you for the time, effort, and work you’ve put into celebrating various aspects of the city.

AMPERSAND (2017-present)

Ampersand is a blog covering culture in Los Angeles, or “an Arts & Culture digital magazine” based out of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

AVOIDING REGRET (2006-present)

Sandi Hemmerlein‘s site, Avoiding Regret, chiefly deals with the author’s explorations of Los Angeles and surrounding areas and features lots of photography.

Jason DeFillippo and Sean Bonner launchedBlogging Los Angeles with a wide focus of subjects pertaining to Los Angeles. Neither author has contributed pieces to the site in some time, though, but the slack has been picked up by a small team of contributors.

BROWN KINGDOM (2005-present)

News and views of Los Angeles from a “chicano barrio” perspective courtesy a writer known as Lonewolf. Much of the focus of Brown Kingdom pertains to Latino gang culture about which little judgment is passed beyond the admonition to readers and commenters to “KEEP IT HATE FREE!”

Alan Starbuck‘s Concrete Chaparral is the author’s ongoing exploration of pockets of urban wilderness located within the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles. He hikes, explores ruins, and pays special attention to native flora and fauna which make his blog such a breath of fresh air.

CREEPY LA (2007-present)

According to its “about” section, Creepy LA is concerned with “the scary” in the Los Angeles area. Don’t go there expecting to read about car-dependency, methane leaks, or megadroughts, though; David Markland’s creep is mostly of an historical or supernatural sort.

CURATING LOS ANGELES (2010-present)

Curating Los Angeles is a blog launched by Westside native and urban planner Jim Gilbert for which sometimes sources outsiders to provide content which Gilbert then curates.

CURBED LA/EATER LA/RACKED LA (2005-present)

Curbed LA is the local offshoot of New York‘s Curbed, the network of which now covers about a dozen cities, famously referring to any newly built , four-story mixed-use building as a “game-changer.” Eater LA is the restaurant listicle-producing wing and Racked LA covers fashion and something called “wellness.”

DISCOVER LOS ANGELES (2003-present)

Created by the LA Tourism & Convention Board, Discover Los Angeles is as predictably boosterish and breezy as one might expect an authorized biography to be. More surprising is its frequent focus on affordability, exemplified by its publishing of calendars of free events such as museum free days and outdoor film screenings.

TheEsotouric Blogis Kim Cooper and Richard Schave‘s blog counterpart to their bus tours, or “bus adventures into the secret heart of Los Angeles,” which they’ve been co-conducting since 2007.

EVANESCENT CITY (2014-present)

Evanescent City is Laurie Avocado’s “photographic record of nostalgia, hope and change in the City of Angels.”

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION (2010-present)

Form Follows Function is “a collaborative media studio creating non-fiction, short format videos connecting architecture, people and place.” The collective’s videos, which include subjects like garden apartments, the Youth Break Center, and Union Station are what should be shown on the local news if their motto was “media with a sense of place” instead of “if it bleeds, it leads.”

EnClave LOS ANGELES is Tom Nguyen‘s guide to art, dance, film, and music with a focus on underrepresented communities and emerging cultural creators.

EXPERIENCE LA (2003-present)

eXperience LA is another tourist-oriented booster blog run by a partnership of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Overnight Prints, and “over 2,000 actively contributing arts and cultural organizations.” The website is expectedly advertorial although its promotion of public transit as a tool of city exploration is worth praise. Note: for those not old enough to remember, a stylized, uppercase “X” was de rigueur in the late 1990s for any marketer hoping to convey the “extremeness” of the experience on offer.

EZRA LOVES LOS ANGELES (2013-present)

Ebullient Ezra Horne launched Ezra Loves Los Angelesto share his interest in “bikes, infrastructure, urbanism, transportation, community, decay, renewal, friends, art, architecture.” Having watched most episodes of his online series (he began producing them in 2013) I would add, specifically, “pedestrian underpasses and bridges” to that list.

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES (2013-present)

The Hidden History of Los Angeles is Robert Petersen’s podcast that “explores the lesser known aspects of L.A. history.” Those subjects have thus far included Chinatown Massacre, the St. Francis Dam Disaster, Toypurina, the 2 Freeway, and more.

HIDDEN LOS ANGELES (2009-present)

Hidden Los Angeleswas launched with the purpose of hipping people to the “real L.A.”Its tagline, “embracing the depth beneath the shallow” tells you all you need to know. The Facebook page, run by founder Wilda Lynn Garrett, is the most active arm of HLA.

HISTORY, LOS ANGELES COUNTY (2007-present)

Vickey Kall’s History, Los Angeles County is “about Los Angeles’ unique history reflected in the buildings, parks, and public spaces of the city and county.” The site is a mix between an aggregator and a content provider whose scope, despite the description, sometimes extends into Orange County (which, of course, used to be part of Los Angeles County).

THE HOLLYWOOD WALKER (2010-present)

The Hollywood Walker is author-and-Sheffield-native Geoff Nicholson’s (The Lost Art of Walking, Walking in Ruins) blog about “drifting and striding, in Hollywood and elsewhere.”

THE HORIZON AND THE SKYLINE (2013-present)

The Horizon and the Skyline is the blog of a native Angeleno, one which reflects the author’s increased efforts to engage with and understand the changes underfoot in their hometown.

I AM NOT A STALKER (2008-present)

Because I Am Not A Stalker includes a section titled “Jennifer Aniston Locations,” refers to Los Angeles as “LaLaLand” and is authored by someone who claims to be obsessed with Michael Bublé, Starbucks’ Iced Lattes, and US Magazine, I almost assumed that it was a parody. Its claim to be the “definitive source for filming locations” is no joke though!

INTERSECTIONS SOUTH LA (2009-2015)

Intersections South LAwas created by professors Bill Celis and Willa Seidenberg to train students to provide coverage for the area between University Park and Watts. Although South Los Angeles is a huge part of Los Angeles, it’s almost completely ignored by most local radio, print, and online media except when it comes time to run the semi-annual “best soul food” listicle; therefore Intersections LA’s focus on education, environment, healthcare, and immigration is a much-needed corrective.

ITTY BITTY GADABOUT (2013)

Itty Bitty Gadabout was Daisy Sale Sepe’s sadly-shortlived blog about exploring “the sprawling city by Metro, bike, and foot” — sometimes as her alter-ego, Bitch Slap. Sadly for us, the author moved out-of-state.

Siel Ju blogged about Los Angeles from through the lens of environmentalism as Green LA Girl, but the blog is sadly no longer active.

J’s LA LA LAND – 加州女孩J的洛杉磯時尚生活 (?-present)

Los Angeles (and the internet) are home to a multitude of fashion bloggers and the focus of Jasmine “Jas” Chang‘s J’s LA LA Land – 加州女孩J的洛杉磯時尚生活 main focus is on shopping, beauty, and fashion (she’s admittedly obsessed with denim). Chang also writes about Los Angeles more generally and does so both in Chinese and from the perspective of a Taiwanese resident — which makes its perspective more singular.

KADAE のロサンゼルス★K-TOWN LIFE【グルメとコリアタウン生活】(2009-present)

The focus of “Kadae LA‘s” Kadaeのロサンゼルス★K-TOWN LIFE【グルメとコリアタウン生活】is on dining and food events in Los Angeles, hardly an uncommon subject for local bloggers. Hers is the only one that I know, however, which focuses primarily on Koreatown, is written in Japanese, and has the appearance of an old Geocities page. The author, Kadae Kayo Lim, also writes a separate noodles-only blog: Kadaeのロサンゼルス麺探訪！！

LA AS SUBJECT (2010-present)

LA as Subject is the USC Library’s site devoted to “collectively preserving, archiving and sharing the rich history and culture of Los Angeles” and “improving access to the archival material of Los Angeles history.” Most entries have been written by either Liza Posas or Nathan Masters.

L.A. CITY NERD (2006-present)

L.A. City Nerd is an anonymous Los Angeles wonk (or wonks) with apparent insider knowledge concerning city government. She or he shares their information via ashutteredblog, a mostly inactive Facebook page, and a very active Twitter account. L.A. City Nerd also frequently comments on LAist, was interviewed by that website, and even served as guest editor once. In an interview, they described their mission as being “about the City, its structure, and how it functions (or doesn’t).”

L.A. CREEK FREAK (2008-present)

The folks are L.A. Creek Freak really are freaks about creeks… and other waterways and wetlands. The site was founded by landscape architect Jessica Hall and artist/author/activist Joe Linton, who provide most of the content (although artist/designer Jane Tsong and Joshua Link are amongst the noteworthy contributors).

LA DAILY MIRROR (2005-present)

“Larry Harnisch Reflects on L.A. History,” reads the tagline. Harnish is a copy editor at the Los Angeles Times and researcher of all things Elizabeth “The Black Dahlia” Short.

LAHISTORY (2009-present)

LAhistory is a Twitter feed designed to jog “the collective memory of Los Angeles.”

LAist is New York-based Gothamist’s Los Angeles wing, one of a half-dozen city blogs. From 2007-2008 they published 20 entries for their much-missed Neighborhood Project. The 14-year-old company was purchased in March 2017 and the new CEO abruptly pulled the plug in November of the same year.

LA OBSERVED (2003-present)

LA Observed is a Kevin Roderick‘s website which involves a small team of contributors. The focus includes a variety of subjects, but mostly media and local politics.

L.A. TACO (2005-present)

L.A. Taco’s tagline is “celebrating the taco lifestyle in Los Angeles.” This apparently entails interviewing artists (and asking them what their favorite taco is), covering the local art, music, and food scenes.

¡LATINO LA! (1999-present)

¡Latino LA! is a website “celebrating Latino voices, lives and souls.” It does so, primarily, by sharing Latino cultural events and articles written by Latinos about issues affecting and news relevant to Los Angles’s Latino population. It was launched in 1999.

LET’S GO L.A. (2013-present)

Let’s Go L.A. is an anonymously written blog about “transportation, land use, and economics in the Southland.”

LOOK WHO’S TRAVELING (2013-present)

The host of the online series Look Who’s Traveling, is referred to only as “Boy,” who since he was five has mostly used public transit to visit amusement parks, festivals, museums, and other family-friendly attractions. More often than not he’s joined by his baby brother, referred to only as “Baby.”

LOS ANGELES ALMANAC (1998-present)

Los Angeles Almanac is, as far as I know, the oldest website devoted to Los Angeles and it is impressively exhaustive and comprehensive, full of maps, lists of notable Angelenos, links, statistics, &c. The man behind the website is Gary Thornton, who works on it in his spare time.

LOS ANGELES BEAT (2011-present)

The Los Angeles Beat was founded by Elise Thompson, Bob Lee, Donna Lethal, and Simone Snaith — all former contributors to LAist — along with Brian Michaels, Michael, Paula Lauren Gibson, Piera Peruvian, and Tawny Tubetop. The focus of the site is entertainment — especially (but not limited to) food and music.

LOS ANGELES, I’M YOURS (2011-2014)

Los Angeles, I’m Yours was Kyle Fitzpatrick’s site focused on Los Angeles which grew to feature the work of 26 contributors writing about art, culture, design, lifestyle and interviewing “tastemakers.” And then it stopped.

LOS ANGELES IS MY BEAT (2005-present)

Los Angeles is My Beat is Ellen Bloom‘s blog about Los Angeles. The description provided by her website states “L.A. is my beat…. from Boyle Heights to the Beach…. from Manchester to Mulholland… from the first stitch… to the very last.”

The Los Angeles Obscura Society was created to offer a “real world exploration arm of Atlas Obscura, seeking out secret histories, unusual access, and opportunities to explore strange and overlooked places hidden all around us.”

Los Angeles Revisitedis Elisabeth L. Uyeda’s contribution to, in her words, the “interesting and worthy sites devoted to the study of Los Angeles, California, as a place.”

METRORIDER LA (2005-2008)

Metrorider LA was a Fred Camino‘s blog about Los Angeles transit, or as he described it, the “Los Angeles Transit Oriented Lifestyle™.” Sadly, the need for income, competition, and burnout led to Metrorider LA going on a seemingly permanent hiatus.

MOVING STORIES LA (2017-present)

Moving Stories LA is Emily Han‘s blog in which she profiles multi-modal Angelenos. Han also has a Twitter feed in which she often posts about exploring Los Angeles without a car.

RESIDENT TOURIST (2011-present)

Resident Tourist’s Suzy Beal knows that “You never really know a place until you’ve explored it on foot.” Although the blog only seems to have been active in 2011, the Facebook page is still updated regularly.

LOS ANGELES WALKS (2013-present)

In 1998, urban designer Deborah Murphy founded Los Angeles Walks as “a pedestrian advocacy group that makes walking safe, accessible and fun for all Angelenos.” Although their blog might be a support feature and not their focus, its focus on walking around Los Angeles makes it worth mentioning and reading.

MAP OF SMOG (2011-2014)

The author ofMap of Smog is known only as “V.” They grew up in the San Fernando Valley and explain on their website which details explorations “of the built environment of the Los Angeles area” that most of their “wanderings take place in the smoggier inland parts.”

THE MILITANT ANGELENO (2007-present)

Militant Angeleno has been writing extensively about all manner of Los Angeles subject matter, from transit history to street sign design, from Native history to forgotten streams and so much more… whilst always referring to himself in the third person.

MODERN HIKER (2006-present)

Casey Schreiner’s Modern Hiker is the best site about hiking trails in Los Angeles and San Diego — but with an emphasis on Los Angeles — which despite usually being characterized as a horizontal city is, thanks to its mountains, also the world’s most vertical.

SOY PAPER (2017-present)

Soy Paper‘s tagline is “Get LA’s Japan-related events sent to your inbox! Festivals, anime, movies, more!” — which, I’d say, pretty much says it all. A valuable resource for Angelenos interested in some aspects of Japanese culture as well as hardcore Nipponophiles. I’m not sure who is behind the website.

STREETGANGS (2002-present)

I don’t celebrate senseless violence or many forms of criminality but in my experience gang members often serve as historians in a city where the recent past is often regarded like the Dark Ages and geography is something people argue about in comment sections. Alex A. Alonso’s Street Gangs also deals with the geography of crime, race and ethnic studies, and socioeconomics.

STREETSBLOG LOS ANGELES (2006-present)

Streetsblog Los Angeles (or L.A. Streetsblog) is the local branch of the New York-based blog network which advocates for sustainable transport, smart growth, and livable streets.

SUEBEE & KAT (2013-present)

A mostly visual document of mother and daughter team, SueBee and Kat’s, many adventures around Southern California. Since Kat moved to Orange, most of the action has followed SueBee.

Alissa Walker’s A Walker in LA is a pedestrian and public transit powered blog featuring many photos of the author’s shoes.

WALKING IN L.A. (2002-present)

Explorer Neil Hopper has been documenting his walks after having his wanderlust awakened by the opening of the Metro Red Line. Walking-centric Walking in L.A. is also the oldest blog on this webograpy.